A mid-sized cable operator said it’s stopped carrying four TV stations in North Dakota because of a dispute over retransmission consent fees. Midcontinent Communications “is not currently permitted to carry” the signals of Prime Cities Broadcasting’s Fox affiliates KNDX Bismarck and KXND Minot and two translators (http://xrl.us/bm3a5e), the operator said. Prime Cities “is demanding an excessive amount” and “we are currently in negotiations on your behalf to reach a fair” deal, Midcontinent said in a message to customers. The Fox affiliates had no comment.
Comcast wants out of rate regulation in three Northern California franchise areas, the cable operator said in petitions posted Monday to FCC docket 12-1 for Piedmont (http://xrl.us/bm3a33), Placerville (http://xrl.us/bm3a3x) and Williams (http://xrl.us/bm3a3r). Comcast said it faces sufficient competition there because two other subscription-video companies serve at least half those areas, where more than 15 percent of households buying TV service get DBS service.
The Communications Workers of America is calling households in support of HR-3569 which is designed to discourage companies from moving call centers overseas. The bill would ban federal grants to companies with overseas call centers, and requires call center employees to disclose their location to consumers. CWA said it called 400,000 constituents in the districts of 21 members of Congress who are among the bill’s cosponsors, encouraging the constituents to thank their representative. The calls say there’s a correlation between overseas call centers and personal data theft. “You may have heard about personal data theft, extortion and fraud happening at call centers located in India and the Philippines,” calls say, according to the union. “The US Call Center Worker and Consumer Protection Act will address this threat, protect consumers, and give you the option to deal with an American call center."
The FCC asked TV caption waiver seekers to update their petitions. The Consumer & Governmental Affairs Bureau posted 210 letters to docket 06-181 Monday and Friday asking for updates because of commission inaction (http://xrl.us/bm3ayu); finding the requests deficient because of missing information and asking questions if applicants want to make a new petition (http://xrl.us/bm3ayy); or seeking additional data because what was provided initially wasn’t sufficient (http://xrl.us/bm3ay4). “Hundreds” of pending petitions filed before Oct. 8, 2010, need more information to be processed under waiver standards of a more recent order, a public notice last week (http://xrl.us/bm3az5) said. “We realize that considerable time has passed since many of these petitions were first filed, and that various circumstances including, but not limited to, the financial status of the petitioners and the cost of captioning, may have changed."
There was more opposition to doing away with a 10-watt class of low-power FM stations (CD March 9 p17), as a recent LPFM rulemaking notice proposed to do in favor of so-called LP-100 and LP-250 higher wattage outlets. “Sometimes only an LP-10 fits into an area, and otherwise an LP-100 or LP-250 won’t work,” One Ministries of Santa Rosa, Calif., said in comments posted Monday in docket 99-25 (http://xrl.us/bm3axx).
Crown Castle International said it completed the acquisition of NextG Networks, an outdoor distributed antenna systems provider. The $1 billion deal was announced in December (CD Dec 19 p10).
The FCC must exercise caution on any further reform of access charges, Windstream told an aide to Commissioner Robert McDowell on Monday (http://xrl.us/bm3akn). Before considering any reforms of originating access rates, the commission should allow time for carriers to address IP factor implementation concerns in the context of terminating access rate reduction, the telco said. If the agency mandates reductions to originating access charges, there should be appropriate transitions and an access recovery mechanism, it said. Windstream also urged the commission to revise the “one unserved location per $775” deployment requirement for Connect America Fund Phase I support.
Verizon’s assertion that the collection of intrastate originating access charges on VoIP traffic would cause other carriers to incur new and unexpected expenses is “not accurate,” attorneys for Cablevision and Charter Communications told the FCC (http://xrl.us/bm3ait). “Far from representing an unexpected cost to IXCs, permitting the continued assessment of intrastate originating access charges on VoIP traffic generally ... would restore the status quo in the industry prior to Verizon’s efforts at self-help.” If the commission grants the Frontier/Windstream petition to allow continued intrastate originating access charges for certain VoIP calls, it should do so “in a manner that treats VoIP traffic consistently, rather than carving out a special exception for the benefit of TDM-based LECs only,” the cable companies said in a filing posted Monday to docket 10-90.
FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski; Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y.; Washington, D.C., Mayor Vincent Gray; and police chiefs from major cities will discuss “new efforts to stem the growing problem of smartphone thefts,” at a news conference Tuesday morning, the commission said late Monday. The event is to be at 10 a.m. at the D.C. government’s John A. Wilson Building. Last month, top Democrats on the House Commerce Committee sent letters to wireless carriers and device and operating system makers, asking how they protect their customers after their cellphones are stolen (CD March 26 p2).
Though U.S. pay-TV subscriber growth has slowed, revenue remains stable, Nomura analyst Mike McCormack wrote investors. “We expect the pool of revenue available to drive programming expenses to remain healthy.” Even while cable operators have lost video market share, they are adding market share in the higher-margin broadband category, he said. That means they'll have plenty of money to pay for programming, despite the steady growth expected in affiliate fees, McCormack said. “Disney is best positioned to capture additional affiliate fee dollars, followed closely by News Corp., Viacom and Scripps Networks.” Nomura’s recommendation that investors buy those shares is “in part, predicated on their ability to take a disproportionate share of content payments over the next two years,” he said.